Killion: A's Wolff picked a bad time to trash his product

Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff smiles while talking about a batting practice session during a spring training game between the A's and the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, February 26, 2009, in Tempe, Arizona. (Karl Mondon/Contra Costa Times/MCT)

Some of the most intriguing news coming out of the Cactus League this spring involves the A's. Matt Holliday's arrival, Jason Giambi's return, Nomar Garciaparra's last hurrah.

The A's are looking like a team that you'll want to follow all year. Unless, that is, someone gives you a reason not to.

That's why owner Lew Wolff's recent actions are so puzzling. After spending the off-season creating an interesting team, he has given his fans a reason not to be interested.

Wolff interrupted the building anticipation of spring training with a dismissive snub to his team's hometown. In a news release, Wolff complained about having "no interest in covering old ground" with Oakland and included a withering description of the Coliseum as an "aging and shared facility." A few days later, Wolff backtracked and said his "real intent wasn't to insult Oakland."

But the real damage was done to his own team. And his action has sports people around the Bay Area scratching their heads.

The timing of the missive — a few weeks before opening day — was baffling. By Wolff's own admission, season-ticket sales are down for a team that finished in 27th place in average attendance last season. The economy is in tatters. Almost anyone considering buying tickets to a ballgame could be easily talked out of such an expenditure.

Wolff's release was followed by immediate reports of A's meetings in Las Vegas, which Wolff tried to quell. But he has tossed the Las Vegas location around in conversation in the past. Las Vegas leads the nation in home foreclosures and its citizens probably aren't too interested in being used as leverage in a stadium game.

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If this all sounds vaguely familiar, it's because here in the Bay Area, we've already had a test case for this kind of maneuver to get a new ballpark.

Almost two decades ago, Giants owner Bob Lurie originated the "I hate my ballpark and you should too," public relations campaign.

In case Wolff, busy with hotel development at the time, overlooked Lurie's campaign, here's a brief summary of its effectiveness: an unmitigated disaster.

Lurie, frustrated with his own aging and shared facility, kept trying to move the Giants. To the South Bay. To Tampa/St. Pete. Anywhere but Candlestick Park. He let everyone know how much he hated his ballpark. And, in a stunning development, his words didn't woo fans to games, but rather persuaded them to stay away. In droves.

The Giants' average home attendance steadily declined from a peak of 26,074 in 1989, a year the team was in the World Series, to 19,759 in 1992.

That's about what the A's averaged last season, the fifth consecutive season of attendance drops. The A's drew 27,179 in 2004, the season before Wolff bought the team. Last season, they were down to 20,559.

In our little baseball petri dish, we have proven that you can't expect to draw well if you publicly hate your ballpark.

When Peter Magowan headed a new ownership group that bought the Giants in 1993, he put a stop to the ballpark bashing. He knew he needed a solid plan to get a ballpark built and he also knew that undermining his own team and the experience of going to a game wasn't going to help. He cleaned up Candlestick, upgraded the concessions (no, kids, garlic fries didn't originate at AT&T), improved traffic flow and hired enough people to get fans in and out on game day.

He also upgraded the team, adding Barry Bonds, which helped. But Magowan made sure that going to a game at Candlestick was fun. He didn't make you feel like a dope for showing up at such a shoddy ballpark.

The result? The Giants' average attendance leapt by more than 12,000 a game the next year. And, aside from the post-strike years, they stayed competitive the rest of their days at Candlestick.

Wolff has upgraded his team. He has a new television agreement with Comcast, meaning that more A's games will be broadcast than in recent years.

But the sad truth of sports right now is that selling tickets and creating interest is harder than it has ever been. People don't have as much disposable income and their interests are more fragmented.

Many observers agree that it makes sense for the A's to eventually end up in San Jose. But there's no current momentum for that move, not in this economy. The A's are going to be in Oakland for the foreseeable future.